What's Cooking With Rhonda: September 2011

Cooking, Travel and just Other Stuff

You have to understand. I come from a line of very crafty people. My sister paints, one niece can knit anything out of a ball of yarn...oh and she paints and wood carves and makes jewelery. The other niece designs things and then sews them and then my great niece...well we will just call her insanely crafty. They all have blogs where they show all of their wonderful things they do. So, that brings me here. I decided I wanted a blog too, but what to write about. I'm not insanely crafty, can't paint, don't wood carve, tried knitting-didn't work....hummm, what do I do? Well, I like to cook and travel and eat, so I thought maybe we can start there. My blog will be about recipes I've made, places I go and restaurants I eat at with a few other things thrown in along the way. I've also heard that writing is good for you brain, so I figure-as I'm getting older now-this could be a good thing. So anyway, if you find my rantings worth commenting over, I'd love to hear from you. If I post a recipe you like, please let me know, other wise you can keep your opinions to yourself. This, after all, is my blog to make myself feel better, to try and compete with my family, because I don't do anything crafty.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

I can still sew!

So last summer I decided I wanted to make a dress. I have always liked the Mandarin style dresses and I decided I wanted to make one for a trip we were taking. I had found the perfect piece of material, problem was I guess I'm the only one who likes a Mandarin style dress because I couldn't find a pattern for one. My niece, Sherie, was looking online for me and she found a Mandarin style blouse pattern from 2004, so I ordered that and figured I could add more length to it. So what I did was combine two patterns. I used the Simplicity pattern from 2004 for the Mandarin top part and then I used the Anna Maria "Socialite Dress" pattern for the bottom part. I am delighted to say it worked perfect. Obviously though, it was harder to make then I thought it was going to be, because it took me a whole year to finish it. Oh well, it came in perfect for this years trip to Colorado Springs. It was good to know I can still sew, but I'm way to slow to make any great strides in a new wardrobe.

I think I did OK

The Money Man and I at The Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs.